Front Page  »  

State will remove tracking devices from paroled gang members

June 25, 2011

GPS tracking devices for gang parolees will be cut by more than half.

California prison officials plan to remove GPS tracking devices from hundreds of paroled gang members in an effort to save money in the state’s troubled budget. [Sacramento Bee]

The department of corrections will cut its monitoring program by more than half, reducing the numbers of tracked gang members from 950 to 400 by July 1.

“Of those gang members that were on GPS, we do not have any in San Luis Obispo County,” said Ben Jimenez, corrections district administrator for the Central Coast.

The reduction will save the state about $6 million and comes at a difficult time for many law enforcement agencies throughout California. Sacramento’s police department, for example, will disband its gang unit next week.

SLO County Sheriff’s spokesman Rob Bryn said the department’s gang unit task force is “up and running, and we’re not anticipating any reductions” but is continuing to monitor developments in the state budget.

“The big question is going to be,” he added, “what’s it going to be like after the state settles its budget?” Funding for law enforcement throughout the state is a big problem, he said. Riverside County “is looking at eliminating at least 400 positions” from its sheriff’s department, Bryn said.

In fact, the Leaf Chronicle reports that Riverside County’s budget proposal would eliminate 500 deputies, correctional officers and clerical workers from its sheriff’s department.

Once the state’s budget issues have been settled, Bryn said, “we’re hoping to augment the gang unit task force” in SLO County rather than reduce it.

The state will also reduce monitoring 1,700 parolees serving time in home detention to about 500. Officials emphasized that the reduced GPS monitoring will not include the 7,550 sex offenders in the program.

Meanwhile, corrections officials hope to transfer tens of thousands of nonviolent parole violators from state prisons to county jails as part of Gov. Jerry Brown’s “realignment” plan.


Loading...
Subjects:                 
Related:


11 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Kinda like the fake “Speed Enforced By Aircraft” signs or the “Security Alarm” window stickers, they should buy cheap fake monitors that are nothing more than a AA battery and a blinking red LED.

Perception is sometimes more effective than reality.


0

Instead of justifying more taxation for public safety.

The public should be allowed to have conceal weapons permit after a background check and firearms safety training.

It is next to impossible to get a CW permit because there are 1001 ways to deny it and pepper gas alternative is used to kiss you away.

They are not gonna stop a criminal or mental case for getting or stealing a knife or gun.

We now have more than 1001 reasons to protect ourselves, a firearm is useless locked in a safe at home whn you are attacked outside and around your home.

We may have to put it on a ballot to allow law abbiding and responsible to obtain a CW permit.

The more law abbiding and good citizens carrying consealed the more safer I feel.


0

Additionally

LE should also be allowed to secure an opinion from an applicant’s long standing physician (no doctor shopping) regarding the applicant’s mental and emotional status to assist the risk in issuing a CW permit.


0

One important reminder to all

The right to bear arms was exclusively and specifically written for citizens, NOT LE and military.


0

Oh just great. What part of “cut the salaries and the benefits” don’t we taxpayers get. Instead of cutting the salaries and benefits the state insists on reducing the work force and losing control of potentially dangerous individuals. In fact our law enforcement folks don’t give a damn for the safety and securtiy of the citizens. They are all into…whats in it for me…..These people are not going to quit their cushy jobs if we cut the salaries and benefits to a level we can afford. What part of this don’t you get. You all don’t have learning disabilities i trust. THEY KEEP CUTTING SERVICES AND STAFF. THEY NEED ACROSS THE BOARD CUTS AND KEEP THE STAFF AND SERVICES THE SAME. THESE PEOPLE CAN’T FIND WORK ANYWHERE ELSE SO UNFORTUNATELY THEY WILL NOT QUIT THEIR JOBS SO MAKE THEM AFFORDABLE


0

So have they figured out how much it is going to cost to put a large number of these gang members back through the system and in jail since they can’t be tracked. Looks good on paper, saving all this money, but really, what is the expense in the savings? In retrospect after a couple years they will go back to using tracking devices. Then it will be time to dig up this article again and throw it in their faces!


0

The governemnt has enough resource to encamp theses criminals and make them survive and earn their own way to survive rather than milking the tax payers, but that would be cruel punishment to make them live in tents, grow and cook their own bread and beans. With a little help, the homeless can do it, I don’t see how it is the criminals cannot.


0

The State is releasing and/or turning a blind eye to all these criminals and reducing law enforcement budgets yet our liberal legislators are continually attacking and removing, bit by bit, our abilities to defend ourselves as legal and law abiding citizens.


0

Not just the liberal legislators… Patriot Act comes to mind.


0

The fact these GPS tracking devices cost $11,000 per gang member speaks volumes about where the real trouble is. ($6 million in savings for getting rid of 550 collars.)


0

Most likely the contract for providing those GPS units was NOT done in a competitive bidding process, but some sort of “sweetheart” deal with someone in a position in government who has a friend or relative who has the company that provides those units. This is, IMO, an argument AGAINST term limits; when the politicians have to be “rolled over” due to term limits, the lobbyists and entrenched government bureaucrats can keep sweetheart deals more easily hidden from public scrutiny. I do realize that there is always the possibility that an entrenched long serving politician could also be a place where sweetheart deals can happen, but as the public becomes more and more outraged at excessive government spending and the lack of competitive bidding for services like this program, a dedicated fiscally responsible politician can also help uncover and/or prevent situations like this from occurring.


0